Cattleya tenebrosa 'Seven Samurai' HCC/AOS
 

This is a selected division from 'Rainforest' x 'Cinnamon'; I have had this plant for a couple years but was surprised to see a whopping 7 flowers this time. Awarded HCC 79 last weekend. A few of its sibs were awarded in 2015 or so.

Gorgeous!

Wow!!!

What a showing! I am surprised they awarded it with how crowded the flowers are, did they comment on that?

I am sure the number of flowers is what prevented a higher award. I'm not sure how to not have a crowded display with 7 flowers, but if I had pinched off a few buds, it would have been 4 larger flowers, better-spaced. Recent awards have had 3 flowers, 4 tops.

I have to think tenebrosa can bloom with 7 (even more?), but from speaking to various people who grow/trade the Brazilian cattleyas nobody had seen a tenebrosa with 7 flowers on a spike, so of course I wanted to let it do its thing.

In my mind, that doesn't make any sense. Why such a criteria?

I listened in on judging. They commented negatively on the crowded flower arrangement and obviously marked down for that. They were debating which set of criteria to use; apparently for cattleyas flower arrangement is not in the point scale, but it is for "general" judging. So I have no doubt in my mind that this plant with 4 flowers would be well-spaced and the flowers would likely be larger as well. But this is of course all subjective. Different day, different judges. Maybe higher score. Maybe lower.

AOS and RHS judging have specific criteria regarding flower shape, arrangement on the stem, orientation in space and more. For high point values the flowers should be arranged well enough apart to be seen easily as individuals, and they should be presented symmetrically.

Of course these are artificial requirements, but those are the standards set by those organizations.

I give it an FCC/LW

Crowding or not, a truly spectacular tenebrosa!